Fat White Family Setlist

Tinfoil Deathstar
Whitest Boy on the Beach
Heaven on Earth
Satisfied
Cream of the Young
Touch the Leather
Garden of the Numb
Is It Raining In Your Mouth?
Goodbye Goebbels
Bomb Disneyland

Tour Dates

April 29 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
April 30 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
May 2 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
May 3 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
May 4 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
May 6 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
May 7 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground

Fat White Family is possibly the last, greatest, punk band in the world. I can attest to that, having witnessed their highly entertaining, drunken show, that all stories you’ve read are true (guitarist Saul Adamczewski was once kicked out of the band, while touring in Paris, frontman Lias Saoudi gets naked on stage, etc…)

Co-headlining the show was Canada’s Dilly Dally (not to be confused with The Dilly Dallies), currently on tour for their debut album Sore (Partisan Records & Buzz Records).

The garagey band (singer/guitarist Katie Monks, guitarist Liz Ball, bassist Jimmy Tony, and drummer Benjamin Reinhartz) played pretty much everything on Sore, including “Snake Head”, “Green” and “Candy Mountain”. The latter was actually a 7” available exclusively from Fat Possum Records – the label that Fat White Family is currently signed with.

Monks had little to say on their 40-min set, other than that she was upset (her exact words, “pissed off”) before the gig, and now she’s feeling much better.

Before I talk about England’s Fat White Family, I have to tell this story. I got to the door, standing behind two grown men who were being refused entry on account of being too “intoxicated”. As it turned out, those two men (as seen on FWF’s photo), is actually in the band! Too funny.

The band mostly dressed in Army Surplus-wear, reminding me of early S*M*A*S*H or Manic Street Preachers imageries, and they sound a bit like the Sex Pistols and The Fall (yes, they even have a song called “I Am Mark E. Smith”).

Despite the lateness (last minute soundcheck pushed their set time to 10:15pm), extremely low light, all the drinking (Saoudi probably opened/drank four beers, including one that a fan bought him during the show), Saoudi taking off his clothes (thankfully, keeping his pants on), smoking on stage (smoking is banned in venues… but I guess technically they can plead ‘artistic performance’) and sound difficulties… by all account this should be the worst show. But it’s not, this band actually sounded pretty great. I love the militant singing, the constant bass and crashing, noisy guitars, throughout their 45-minute set (with no encores).

Fat White Family’s sophomore album Songs For Our Mothers is out now on Fat Possum Records. See the band live to experience the madness yourself… the sooner, the better.